City Council approves some housing authority salaries

SARATOGA SPRINGS >> The Saratoga Springs City Council voted Tuesday to approve some, but not all, of the salaries included in the Saratoga Springs Housing Authority’s budget, and asked that the agency return for the remaining salary approvals at a later date.

The subject of city Housing Authority salaries has been a point of dispute between the agency and the city, but Mayor Joanne Yepsen said at the meeting she is working with authority officials to forge a positive “new path forward.”

“We are doing our due diligence here tonight. We are following the law and I feel very strongly that we do this on an annual basis or when a new salary or pay raise is proposed, it should be brought before City Council for approval,” Yepsen said.

The Public Housing Law requires housing authority salaries approval from the city council.

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The salaries not approved by council members were that of assistant clerk and typist Kathy Peterson as well as assistant director Paul Feldman, in training to succeed current director Ed Spychalski, who is poised to retire in December. Spychalski’s salary also was not approved.

Inadequate salary comparisons for Peterson’s, Feldman’s and Spychalski’s salary levels were the reason for leaving them out of the resolution, Yepsen said. She added that Spychalski’s salary — frozen at $144,921 by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development — was potentially excessive.

A state audit of the city Housing Authority has said the salary and the contract for Spychalski, which at the time was a five-year rolling contract that guaranteed him five years pay, was too generous.

Housing authority commissioner Lou Schneider said the comparisons, which come from the city school district, won’t be available until mid-July.

City Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan was the only person who voted against Yepsen’s resolution to accept some salaries. Madigan said she was voting no on principal and because authority officials should have brought the salaries in for approval before they voted to adopt their budget, not after.

In addition to discussing salaries, Schneider gave council members an update on the state of the Housing Authority, which was given a score of 94 by HUD. The score is above the national average, he said, which is in the low 80s.

The condition and future of the Ford Center, which was closed recently due to the discovery of black mold, was also discussed. Schneider said tearing the building down and not rebuilding it was a possibility.

“If we had no Ford Center today, would we even consider such a building given the availability of the recreation center?” Schneider asked council members.